Moving to a new SQL Server

From SharePoint Knowledge Base

These steps describe how to move an existing SharePoint farm to a new SQL server.

1. Using the SharePoint Central Admin on the SharePoint server hosting Central Administration, make a full backup the whole farm.
   1. Central Administration > Operations > Perform a Backup
   2. Select FARM > Click "Continue to Backup Options"
   3. Create a backup
2. Disconnect each SharePoint server from the Server Farm. Starting with the last server in your farm (assuming you have multiple SharePoint servers) and ending with the Central Admin server , perform the following steps:
   1. Launch SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard and in "Modify Server Farm Settings" select the option "Disconnect from this server farm". Click Next
   2. Once the server is disconnected from the Farm reboot the server. Check if there are any SharePoint web sites and application pool in IIS Manager. If yes delete them.
3. Next, a new SharePoint farm must be created. On the server hosting Central Administration, perform the following steps:
   1. Launch SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard
   2. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click next.
   3. Click yes in the dialog box that notifies you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.
   4. On the Connect to a server farm page, click No, I want to create a new server farm, and then click Next.
   5. In the Specify Configuration Database Settings dialog box, in the Database server box, type the name of the computer that is running SQL Server (new SQL Server name).
   6. Type a name for your configuration database in the Database name box, or use the default database name. The default name is "SharePoint_Config"
   7. In the User name box, type the user name of the Server farm account. (Be sure to type the user name in the format DOMAIN\username.)
   8. In the Password box, type the user's password, and then click Next.
   9. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application page, select the Specify port number check box and type 65001.
   10. In the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application dialog box keep default settings
   11. On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard page, click Next.
   12. On the Configuration Successful page, click Finish.
   13. The SharePoint Central Administration Web site home page opens.
4. Next, all additional servers in the farm should be re-configured. For each additional SharePoint server in your farm, perform the following steps:
   1. Launch SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard
   2. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click next.
   3. Click yes in the dialog box that notifies you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.
   4. On the Connect to a server farm page, click Yes. Then enter the name of the new SQL server and the name of the configuration database created in the previous set of steps.
   5. Let the wizard finish to complete adding the server to the server farm.
5. Lastly, SharePoint must be restored from the backup performed in step 1.
   1. Browse to Central Administration > Operations > Restore from Backup
   2. Select the backup file location created in step 1. click OK
   3. Selet the farm backup. Click "Continue Restore Process"
   4. Click the check box next to "Windows SharePoint Services Web Application". Click Continue Restore Process.
   5. In the page that comes up, set the Restore Options to "NEW Configuration"
   6. Provide "new database Server name" for all web sites (Double check the database server name is the new server name for all databases)
   7. Click OK
6. Next, the Shared Services Provider and its content must be restored.
   1. Browse to Central Administration > Operations > Restore from Backup
   2. Select the backup file location specified in step 1. Click OK
   3. Select Farm Backup. Click "Continue Restore Process"
   4. Click the check box next to "SSP". Click Continue Restore Process
   5. In the page that comes up, set Restore Options to "NEW Configuration"
   6. Provide "new database Server name" for the SSP (Double check the database server name is the new server for all databases)
   7. Click OK
7. At this point the restore process should be finished. It may be necessary to re-apply any SSL certificates since the IIS web sites were deleted in step 2.